OPIUM IN CHINA

Evening Star, Issue 18159, 27 December 1922, Page 6

OPIUM IN CHINA

A. GROWING MENACE. EXTENSIVE CONTRABAND TRADE. Tho midsummer report of the International Anti-Opium Association received from Peking shows that the efforts of the Central Government to control and suppress the recrudescence of the opium habit in China * are still being ■widely frustrated by the yari--1 ous military governors and lawless soldiery. ■ who are encouraging and: enforcing what > Peking forbids. i From practically every province corner the I report that opium is being sold more or . less openly, and the morphia consumption ■ is widespread, although in certain quarters the prevalence of the more noxious drug seems to be a little less owing to the ease with which opium itself may be obtained. 1 It also seems as if the Japanese are in ' many cases honestly trying to control their 1 smugglers, who have' been responsible for i flooding the country with morphine manu- . factored in England, the United States, i Germany, and Switzerland. One of the most ■ common forms in which opium is sold is as . “Pei-wan pills,’’ these being recommended os cures for the opium habit! A recent traveller through the Kansu province reports:—“Never have I seen opium exhibited with such nonchalance and com--1 plot© absence of fear as on this trip. Opium 1 was produced in railway trains and native inns, and its quality and price openly discussed before a foreigner without the least i reticence. The opium situation in Suiyan | is so bad l that even the new Tatung, who i has never permitted the cultivation of the ■ POPP! hi his native province of Kansu, confesses it is hopeless to cope with or even 1 tackle it. ll© found 1 one-third to one-fifth ■ of the best land in the rich Paolow Valley planted with poppy and guarded jealously • by the Chihli soldiers of the Paotow garrison, who arc said to bo rich. They have gone ! out through, the villages and appropriated each man several acres of land, upon which they have forced 1 tho peasants to plant poppy. Bach soldier ‘protects’ his ‘own’ poppy field, in return for which protection he collects two-thirds of tho yield from the farmer. If the yield is very poor he takes all, and instances have occurred in which he has forced tho peasant to sell his personal goods to make good the disappointment of a bad crop.” j A recent letter from Yunan says; “ Opium is a cheap and popular stuff here. Except women, about 60 per cent, of the people havo the habit of wnoking it. You will find the opium plant everywhere in the province. I hoar that the local Government, instead of trying to prevent the people planting poppy, always reckons the opium tax as a big income.” “There is no evidence of any improvement,” reports Shanghai. “The city .is the

centre of every form of contraband trade, ' in spite of tho extreme vigilance of the Maritime Customs and tho municipal police. In tho last quarter of 1921, 130,000 dollars’ worth of morphia and heroin were seized on Japanese steamers.” In the western province of Szechuan it is alleged that the slock at one place, Ichang, is e.stinialcd at three million ounces, while throe hundred thousand people—growers, brokers, and dealers—get their living by this trade. The Japanese Minister at Peking liars supplied Dr Graham Aspland, tho secretary of the Anti-Opium Association (and for many years a worker with tho S.P.G. in Peking), with some details regarding the present conditions in Kkochow. It was found impossible, bo says, to carry out the premise to abolish the system by [March. 1921, as the sudden cutting off of supplies would have meant practically the death of many habitual smokers, of whom it was estimated there were 10,000. With proper medical treatment the two or three thousand such cases of opiomauiaes might be decreased by 20 per cent, annually. Permits were eventually issued to 3,113 of these, and the amount of opium “ treacle ” for their needs is each year being reduced by a fifth, so that tho supply may be gradually eliminated. The Japanese authorities have proclaimed that any person found engaged in Ihe opium or morphia traffic in any of the Japanese railway towns along the Southern Manchuria line will be severely punished; hut ■the Siberian _ Russians are developing an extensive cultivation of the poppy along the Manchurian bolder. As they are prohibited from using it themselves, it is obvious it is intended for ihe contraband trade. The gangs consist of Russians, Japanese, Chinese, Greeks, Caucasians, Turks, and nondescripts of other nationalities to ihe number of about a thousand. Associated with them are foreign women, who travel between Changchun and Peking carrying morphia and cocaine on their persons. Japanese smugglers into Manchuria from Korea are “ deported,” but as this merely means crossing the Yalu River bridge they soon again begin work. Tho condition of affairs in Harbin shows a change for the worse. “ Morphia and cocaine are already a blighting curse. Clubs exist of boys of the ago of fourteen and upwards for the use of cocaine, and tho demoralising effect of these drugs is seen in all social ranks and at all ages.” Dr Aspland says, at tho conclusion of his report, that, although tho revival of the poppy-growing is only 10 per cent, of what it was years ago, “ the present narcotic condition in China is decidedly depressing. We would be without hope were wo not absolutely convinced that this is but a passing phase in the nation’s life, and one for which every national, social, and religious force must be urgently and sympathetically used to deliver the people. Wc foreigners can assist by rousing the conscience standard of our own countries. There is no room for stone-throwing. The subject is international, and, as such, producers and consumers, tho debauching and the debauched, must take equal responsibility. For the use of opium China must now accept almost entire responsibility, but for morphia the blame rests with the producers and smugglers of outride countries. The flooding of China with morphia after they had eradicated opium may have been a contributing element in the poppy recrudescence, and of the two evils opium is unquestionably tho lesser. Our stand is that both must cease by honest national and international legislation. Tho greatest victory of anti-opium work is tho recent decision of the League of Nations Council to appoint a committee to estimate the legitimate medical requirements of all nations so as to limit morphia production for that use only.”